Historical Western Springs
Western Springs’ Postcards from the Past
Picture postcards were first introduced at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. And, over the years, little Western Springs was featured on quite a few.
With the advent of modern photography and printing presses, the production and sale of picture postcards became a huge industry in the early 1900’s. Not only did the Post Office establish a special one cent rate for the cards, it also allowed short messages to be written on the address side of the cards. With those changes, postcards became, literally, the email or Facebook of that era. The Western Springs Historical Society archives contain a collection of such cards spanning most of the last century. As shown in the first photo, some promoted the town's “tourist attractions”, including churches, the village's light & water plant, train station, residential areas, and, of course, the Water Tower. See first photo. Some of the more …
Ice Man
8:20 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
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